Trivia / Chopping Mall

• The Cameo: Paul and Mary Bland from Eating Raoul appear in the opening during the presentation of the robots, commenting that maybe they should get one for their restaurant.
  • Dick Miller also appears as a janitor named Walter Paisley, sharing a name with his character from A Bucket of Blood. Both movies share a producer in Roger Corman, who also directed A Bucket Of Blood.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Finland: The Trade of Death
  • Italy: Supermarket Horror
  • Mexico and Spain: Killer Robots
  • Poland: Death Robots
  • Portugal: Horror in Park Plaza
• Creator Cameo: Director Jim Wynorski voiced the three Protector robots.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The mall this was filmed in, the Sherman Oaks Galleria, was the same mall where Commando, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Terminator 2: Judgment Day was filmed. (The exteriors are from another mall entirely.)
• Referenced by...:
  • Very similar-looking mall security robots appear in the Transformers: BotBots episode "Shopping Brawl". The lead robot even says "Have a nice day!" the Protector series robots' catchphrase from this film, in case the reference isn't obvious enough.
  • Discussed by two characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Season 4, and later given a Whole-Plot Reference complete with visually similar robots and the original director's ire[1].
• What Could Have Been: A second scene featuring Paul and Mary Bland being killed by one of the Protectors was written but never filmed. Said script page is included in the Blu-ray as a bonus feature.
  • Artisan Entertainment, who had distribution rights for the film before they were acquired by Lionsgate (via Artisan's acquisition of Vestron Video in the early 90s) were interested in producing a sequel and at some point, their own remake, and planned on releasing it in 2003. According to Jim Wynorski, who was tapped to re-direct the sequel, both of the projects died when the people interested found out Roger Corman still had a say in whether or not a continuation or remake can be produced, and that he ultimately pulled the plug.
  • A remake was going to be produced and directed by Robert Hall (Laid to Rest), and was planned to start production in 2012. It was going to be a remake in name only, as the new story was going to revolve around supernatural elements instead of robots. While Hall's passing in 2021 potentially spelled the end of the project, much like the prior attempt at a remake it turned out he didn't have the rights to remake the film anyway according to original director Jim Wynorski.

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